You've heard of grade inflation at college.
Here comes salary inflation -- for the assistant football coaches.
Head coaches have long been among the One Percent in America, so a raise for Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio that will hike his annual compensation from just under $2 million to $3.64 million might not shock the average citizen who is not a football fan.
Actually, Dantonio’s 2014 total pay would rank him first — he received a $2 million longevity bonus this month, putting him at $5.64 million for the year, reports Joe Rexrode in the Free Press.
But MSU defensive coordinator/assistant head coach Pat Narduzzi, hardly a household name, also got a raise, and his salary is now $904,583 a year. Rexrode reports Narduzzi has become the highest-paid Big Ten assistant.
The Spartans had a 13-1 season and beat Stanford in the Rose Bowl. MSU is 62-29 in seven seasons under Dantonio.
Rexrode quotes from a statement by Athletic Director Mark Hollis, who says:
“Mark Dantonio and his assistants have done a remarkable job in putting Michigan State football back on the national map and positioning it to compete for Big Ten championships on a consistent basis. . . .. We believe that we have not only one of the finest head coaches in the conference but in all of college football."
Dantonio now makes more than Michigan’s Brady Hoke [$3.3 million base pay]. Narduzzi is in front of the Wolverines’ assistant coach Greg Mattison [$850,000].
Among the football cognoscenti, the salaries are a sign MSU is taking it to a new level, as a coach might say.
At the Lansing State Journal, sports columnist Graham Couch comments on what he calls "a statement day:"
These are big-boy contracts for a program making its push to live in a new neighborhood. . . .
MSU had to do this. Or never again be taken seriously. . .
MSU President Lou Anna Simon's total compensation was $672,000 last year.
